Letters to Little Man

I took this picture on our last day at the beach. Conveniently enough, the ocean was at low tide and a giant tide pool had formed, just deep enough for your short little self to enjoy. J and I spent a while gathering shells for you – we would set them in a pile next you as you stood on the edge of the tide pool, and you would pick them up and chuck them as hard as you could into the middle of the pool. You actually have a pretty good arm! You could probably play baseball, although I recommend using that arm for a solid football career if you choose to go the sports route. Sorry, I’ve never really followed baseball. I promise I will if that’s what you want to do, though :)

Anyhow, after quite a bit of shell tossing, you went out into the ocean with E while J played with Sports Man and I walked with Grandma M along the beach a little ways. Eventually we all ended back up in the tide pool, in the very shallow part. You had discovered that wet sand is alotof fun to play with. You had a little red shovel and you would shovel some wet sand and fling in it various directions. Most of it landed on you, but again, you’ve got quite the arm so some of the sand really got some distance. It was actually very daring of me to take my camera out within a 5-7 ft. radius of you.

But you were covered in sand and totally oblivious to how incredibly dirty you were, and I couldn’t resist. I’m really glad too. I got some good shots. Plus any opportunity to forever capture your cuteness on film is one I’m going to take. You may get older and some day be taller than me, but your miniature, almost two-year old self covered head to toe in wet sand will be preserved forever.

I printed this picture and have it sitting on the window sill of my apartment in NYC. I’m always thinking about you. But – even though I did change your diaper and your outfit after that beach outing – luckily, I am not always in charge of cleaning you.

So the coolest thing happened to me yesterday. I saw you!

Now of course, you didn’t fly up to NYC and I didn’t finally get the hang of teleportation and end up in North Carolina. I’m mostly a Skype girl, but I do have an iTouch and Apple makes this nifty thing called FaceTime. FaceTime is basically video chatting between iPods, iPads, iPhones, etc. By the time you’re old enough to read this, technology will have probably advanced way beyond video chatting, but right now it’s fairly revolutionary. I’m loving it, especially since I’m way up in NYC and many of the people I love are still in NC. Including you :)

Last night I went to an early dinner with my Aunt for her last night in town and on my way home, I was texting J. She had sent me a couple of pictures of you and I was commenting on your hair (which is long and curly again! Yay!) and how big you were and she was saying how crazy it was that you were going to be two years old in two months. Right about the time I got to my apartment, she asked if I wanted to FaceTime with you right before you went to bed.

I’ve only tried FaceTime a couple of times before. Mostly, Sports Man and I would FaceTime whenever I would come to visit you. That’s right – we would only FaceTime when we were in the same room with each other. We would have very wonderful, meaningful conversations too. But we hadn’t done it in a while, so it took me a minute to find the app and log on.

But when I did, there you were! You took a very long look at the iPod, probably trying to figure out how I was there or talking to you. But when you saw me you smiled and laughed. After a few minutes, you were even calling “Nay-Nay!” to get my attention so that you could show me something. Apparently you’ve learned how to fall down on purpose (because you just weren’t doing it enough accidentally) and every time you would run around your crib and “fall down,” you would say, “Whooooa!” It was partly ridiculous, partly hilarious, and completely adorable. You blew me kisses and when it came time to say the final good night, you even gave the screen a real kiss.

I loved my mini-Liam visit. Just getting to see you in action, in real-time, being your goofy, crazy, adventurous, wonderful, handsome self just makes my day. J and I have agreed to try to do it fairly often, so that way I get to see you and talk to them even though I won’t actually get to visit until your birthday weekend (I’m definitely flying down for that – no way I could miss the big 2!) Every time that you recognize me and call me Nay-Nay, my heart does this melty thing and I experience my own personal little victory. That’s one of the main reasons I chose open adoption – so you would know who I was, so I could be central enough to your life that you considered me to be a recognizable part of it. I’d say mission accomplished.

Also, apparently there’s a way to take a picture of your screen when you’re on an iTouch or iPhone. Can’t say I’ve mastered it, but I gave it my best shot. I love you, baby boy. And yes – you will be baby boy forever. And ever. And ever.